25 July 2013

truculent

[truhk-yuh-luhnt, troo-kyuh-]

adjective

1. fierce; cruel; savagely brutal.
2. brutally harsh; vitriolic; scathing: his truculent criticism of her work.
3. aggressively hostile; belligerent.

Origin:
1530–40; < Latin truculentus, equivalent to truc-, stem of trux savage, pitiless + -ulentus -ulent

Related forms
truc·u·lence, truc·u·len·cy, noun
truc·u·lent·ly, adverb

Synonyms
1. See fierce.

Antonyms
1. amiable, gentle.

Today’s aphorism

Swans sing before they die – ’twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge

On this day

25 July 1603 – James VI, King of Scotland, is crowned as the first King of Great Britain and becomes James I.

25 July 1834 – death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet.

25 July 1946 – the United States conducts first under-water tests of an atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

25 July 1978 – Bob Dylan booed off stage for using an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival.

25 July 1995 – discovery of minor planet: 43844 Rowling, which was named after author J.K. Rowling in 2006.